


Taedet Vivi, Vix Mori

by Neon_Monkeys



Series: The long war: Coffee versus Tea [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Cannibalism, Canon Era, Eren and Kaneki are the same person, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Levi/Eren Yeager, Ghoul!Eren, Kidnapping, M/M, Mafia AU, Multi, Not for the soft hearted, Not kid stuff, Older!Eren, Rape, Sex Trafficking, Slow Build, Slow Burn, The Underground, Titan Eren Yeager, Torture, Underground Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), the 24th ward, underground city
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2020-09-27 06:48:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20403448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neon_Monkeys/pseuds/Neon_Monkeys
Summary: Titans roam the outside world striking fear in the hearts of many. Ghouls hide amongst the humans. Both species opponents in a flesh-eating war that never seems to end. Eren is the victim of cruel experiments that he has no memory of cause his body to change and develop into something more than human.Or an Attack on Titan/Tokyo Ghoul crossover in which an older Eren pisses Levi off to no end.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is not for the faint-hearted. It's rough and gruesome. I do not romanticize rape. After the first chapter, it is barely spoken of but Eren deals with it throughout the series. So I would appreciate it if no one flames my work. I haven't read the manga for no regrets and I don't know if I intend to but I have seen the anime version so my story will be based on that. I have read the main series Manga up until 90- something.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Attack on Titan/Shingeki no Kyojin nor Tokyo Ghoul.
> 
> Warning: I make no promises to update regularly.

The boy was smart but cocky. He didn’t know the second part. The boy knew what he had to do. The boy peered into the warped glass window on pointed toes. There are two men in the isolated, wooden cabin in front of him. One man sat on a chair and the other stood conversing with the former. Both of average stature. No visible weapons, but that couldn’t be relied upon. He knew there was a high probability he could take them. Nothing he hadn’t done before. The small boy pushed the door open with nimble hands to peek through the small gap.

“Pardon me,” The boy wobbled. The boy uses what he knows. No small detail should go unnoticed. Back at home people usually underestimate him when he uses this voice. He wonders if it’s the same here.

“You little snot! How did you find this place?” or not, that's okay too.

“Well, I was lost in the woods and I saw your cabin.” The boy kept up the pretense of nervous rambling and blinked up at the stranger. His vague manipulation may need a second to sink in. Mr. Harklow, an elderly from next door, has grown an immunity to small, as the boy knows, adorable faces. Sometimes he has to try more than once to see results. This man, now close to his face, must kidnap a lot of children to gain a tolerance.

The man does succumb after turning to his shorter cohort, it doesn’t matter what he says. The first man’s voice changed lilt, “A kid your age shouldn’t be out in the woods alone,” he proceeded to pat the boy’s brown hair. “There are big, bad wolves out there. Don’t worry, you’re safe now,” Lies. “If you stay with us…” The man steps forward the boy goes in for the kill. The boy takes his knife from his waistband. With two hands he plunged his knife upward into the man’s chest.

“I appreciate that, Sir. I understand,” the boy appreciates the spreading of blood. He slashes out sideways freeing his knife. His polite smile turns into a growl, “Die, you bastard!” The man falls sideways out of the doorway. His aquamarine eyes fiercely pointed into at the second's pair.

The man in the rickety chair stands, chair knocking back, “This can’t be!”

The boy hurries and closes himself behind the wooden door for cover to ready himself. Armed with the newly made broom spear from his sole knife and snapped broom. He’s sure he heard, “Wait, you Punk!”

The man opened the door revealing the glistening ax. The boy springs forward into action ducking the ax and lancing the knife tip through his bulging middle causing the kidnapper to propel himself backward. The boy lands on the man’s torso. “Die you animal!” The knife breaks off the broom and he grasps it by the handle and plunges it downwards. “Die!” And again. “This is what you get!” And again “Die!” And again. “Don’t you ever stand up again!” And again. 

The boy breathes deep, enjoying the rush of adrenaline coursing through his system. “You’re safe now,” he appeased the girl lying off to the side, “Don’t worry.” 

The boy moves off the now dead man and picks up the bloodied knife. Again all the while moving towards the Asian girl. Her eyes widen and she picks herself up onto her knees whimpering. Rounding behind her the boy cuts through the thick white rope with his knife before setting it aside. The boy recognizes the tension in the room. 

“You are Mikasa, right?” the boy pauses for a moment, he continues untying the girl, “I’m Eren. I’m Doctor Yeager’s son. I’m sure you’ve met my father before. We stopped by your house today for a checkup but then…”

“There were three of them.” Of course, she only speaks up now. Ah well. 

The door breaks open and a large man, taller than both the now deceased kidnappers, storms through the door. “This is all your doing, isn’t it?” Eren launches himself towards the knife he placed down moments before, but a firm boot catches his stomach and tosses him across the room. The kidnapper grasps Eren by the head with coarse, firm hands and pushes him headfirst into the ground. Pain erupts in Eren’s skull, his face crumpling. “Look at those pretty eyes, you’ll sell for a decent price.” Eren squirms and wriggles best he can as the man tilts his head to get a good look at him.

The kidnapper wraps his hands around the brown-haired boy’s neck and lifts the boy into the air. “It was you who did this!” The man flexed his hand. “But at least now I don’t have to split the money anymore.” He laughs, “You did me a favor.”

Eren could feel insufficient oxygen reaching his brain, the airiness in his head and tingle of his lips, “Fight…” He rasped. The girl gasped, confused, “You must fight… You’ll die… If you don’t.”

The girl began to look frantic. Opening and closing her fists, her eyes darting between the knife on the floor and Eren, who was steadily turning blue.

Eren really doesn't want to die and really what a disappointing way to go. He tried again, “If you win, you live,” Eren knew she needed another prod.

“What are you saying?” the man questioned and shook the boy again.

Eren’s eyes dilated in his stare, “You can’t win unless you fight,” his voice barely audible.

There is a brief moment of silence where Eren continues to turn a sickly color and his body relaxes. He’s nearly dead, he thinks, he is going to die and this man is going to sell him for parts. He thinks it would be quite a shame to die so quick. He should have let the girl just die. He sees Mikasa duck to pick up, the knife. His vision blurs and his body has nearly completely given up without oxygen and it hurts so bad.

“I can’t,” It’s high pitch and a little scratchy but that’s it.

* * *

Eren must have fallen asleep outside again. His face was welded into the dirt and his arms were cold but seared from overexertion. His lungs burned and he couldn’t move properly. He tried to bring his hands from behind him to the ground. His wrists and ankles wouldn’t come apart and his eyes only saw the fuzz of darkness. Eren didn’t know what was going on. How could it possibly be this difficult to wake up? To move? He started to wriggle the best he could but his body was fatigued and limp. Upon moving his head, a headache began to take residence his brain, like a vise was pressing in from all sides.

There was the pitter-patter of sounds. The rushing of air, the clicking, and smacking of something, soft pounds on the earth in contrast to the louder stomps. His vision began to speckle with yellows and reds. Eren pushed air from his lungs forcefully. He could smell the tang in the uplift of sandy dirt. It became apparent that he was tied up.

There was a laugh and someone grabbed him from the back of his shirt hauling him to sit on his lower legs. He sunk slightly to the side. “The boy lives!” There was a snicker from somewhere else in the space around him. His vision renders and the more blinks, the more detailed his surroundings are. In front of him, there is a tall broad man with dirty indistinguishable hair much like his compatriots on the other side of the room he wore a dirty handkerchief around his neck and a flannel jacket. His face wore a greasy smile and Eren could briefly register his hand in his hair. “We were sure Jeremy had hit you too hard. Would have been such a waste.” Eren would have snarled something back if he hadn’t known that would utterly stupid. Eren wasn't what someone would call a suicidal bastard.

A man sat on a wooden chair in front of stone stairs that led up into dark nothingness. The man had a thin comb-over and circular glasses like Eren’s dad. Oh God. Where was his dad when he needed him?

There were other children in the stone-walled room. Two blondes, a brunette, and Mikasa. He was the only boy. When the man spoke his voice was stern and level. His eyes flickered between each of them. 

“Some of you won’t survive being here long, let alone long enough to have any financial use. You are here to learn. Each of you has been taken from unwanted homes and have already been chosen for new homes. Do not fight, do not run, do not think. That is not what you are here for. You are nothing more than bodies now, a past time. You have no name, no family, no worth. Only an employer and a length of use.” His voice was measured and practiced. “During your stay here, you will learn the basics and specifics. There will be no door unopened, no skill unlearned. You will not speak unless spoken to, you will not move unless told to. You are dolls now and you will be used. We will start tomorrow.” The man gets up and scapes his chair and makes to leave but Eren groans. Sina, Rose, and Maria! Eren’s Stupid!

“Is the boy deaf?” The man places his chair down and walks to the boy, “I said no noises.” 

Eren’s lips won’t form the words but someone else makes the effort for him. “What does that even mean?” It is one of the blondes. She looks taller than the other, older. 

The man looks amused now, however, “Sex, my dear.”

Eren’s sure if he was like other children he would be horrified. Terrified even. His mother has spoken to him about sex before. About how he will have sex with a woman when he is married and much, much older. How he will have sex to have children. He has heard the older kids in Shiganshina talk about sex and the great pleasures they receive. This, however, this is not right. His mother told him sex is supposed to be sacred and how he is only supposed to have sex with someone he loves. Eren doesn’t love anyone but his mother and father. His mother told him it’s a different kind of love. Or whatever that means.

The other men in the room untie the children as the man who had spoken before climbs the stairs with the chair. Once Eren is untied he sinks to the floor. His body aches, exhausted and he doesn’t know where he is. He should have done as he was told. He should have stayed at the bottom of that hill. And by God this place is filthy.

* * *

It becomes apparent to Eren fairly quickly that something is wrong with him. His speech doesn’t come back to him as it once was. It’s slurred and barely coherent. His movements are lagged but hold the usual strength behind them. The one thing that alerts his captors to his not wellbeing is the vomiting. Someone mentions that they had been given faulty product and they should beat it out of him. They give him a bucket and keep their distance anyway. Mikasa keeps close to Eren. She alternates between apologizing, sobbing herself into hyperventilation and sleeping only when she passes out from exhaustion. He practiced his talking to the small girl until it came back. It didn’t take long. It was like his mouth was confused but he had that straightened out after many visits from upstairs. By the end, Eren realized that he had grown protective of Mikasa. He didn’t want anything bad to happen to her. They spoke briefly of their parents amongst other things. Her parents seemed kind.

The only time she is separated from him is by force. Their captors would take turns teaching the girls in the center of their shared cell. It is quickly learned that the others and himself are to sit naked, quietly in a row so the men can choose from them. The row also coincidentally gives them a wide view to watch. It’s the taller blonde’s turn this morning. Her name is Laura, Eren had learned over the past few days maybe. Eren doesn’t know. He watches the man rut into her like he had seen cats do at home. Laura’s face was planted into her arms, inhaling dirt. Her arms were white from the strength of holding herself up at the same time as trying to get away but the captor has his left arm wrapped around her and his right in her hair pushing her into the ground. Her body is shaking from sobs quietly as the man to the side orders her silence. The man unzips the front of his trousers and walks towards him. He stops at Mikasa though. He has never felt more of a coward in his life. He has never felt so much relief in his short life to see someone else in pain. 

They give him until Tuesday, whenever that is to get better or they’ll stop feeding him. 

Eren becomes very used to pain in the absence of the more invasive assault the girls suffer from. His captors threw him, kick him, do everything in their power to make him suffer without killing him. They are very insistent on how “He” will be very mad to have paid for dead goods. On how “He” will find “His” services fulfilled elsewhere. Eren adds this “Him” to his list of future dead along with every single man and rapist in this building.

Eren doesn’t know whether it’s fortunate or not that his bruising and lacerations heal at a phenomenal rate. Eren thinks they would hurt him less if he looked closer to death the next time they came to play.

* * *

Over the next long while, passed by much sleep. Many things happen the first and most important is that Eren stops vomiting. Whatever had happened to him had left his system and he has never been more afraid. His movements are less labored, almost as fluid as they were when he was sent off to collect wood on his own back at home. And most frightening a blond stalked towards Eren. 

Eren tumbled backward, “No! Get away!” It was little for nothing though. Eren had seen the girls react much the same. The man grabbed Eren by the arm and yanked him forward. Under the watchful eye of his captor, Eren stomped forward and down onto the man’s crotch. The blond fell back with a strangled shout turned sob. The man slurred something under the pain. Eren’s momentary success was short-lived. The brunet at the other side of the room took large steps towards Eren and shouted up the stairs. Eren lurches backward again. 

“That fucking damn kid is gonna die!” There is a tumble of steps coming down the stairs and two undistinguished men come out of the dimly lit doorway. As the two men pick up their fallen ally blood makes its presence known as it seeps through his trousers. Eren would be gleeful if the situation permitted. The first man throws Eren two-handed into the stone wall. His head cracks and dread fill his gut. He blinks the black edges of his vision away and he sees the man draw a knife and hold Mikasa by her long hair. He slices her throat slowly as she screams and struggles to get out of her captors grasp. Her hands go to her throat frantically trying to close the laceration, choking noises quieting the longer the man holds her up. Mikasa’s movement slows and then stop. The man drops her to the ground. 

“That’s why you do as your told,” The man is unwavering in his anger. Eren sobs for what will be the last time in years.

* * *

A blond and a redhead visit him later. The redhead holds him down and the blond shows him what Hell feels like. Not moments later, the redhead has his revisit. Eren vows to himself that he is gonna kill every last one of these fuckers. He was going to burn them. Rip their filth from inside the walls.

Afterward, the other children took care of him. They would dab at him and leave his legs spread. It made him cold quickly but the bleeding stopped. Only then would they let him close his legs, curl up and cry. They had taken his clothes. 

* * *

Eren finds that it’s easier to just let them do what they want. His captors leave him alone quicker if they can’t get a rise out of him. Eren used to scream about how he's going to kill every last one of them. About how he’s going to rip them limb from limb. How the dirt floors are going to soak in their blood. How he’s going to keep them awake while he bites off their fingers. How he’s going to snap their bones. How he's going to burn the eyes from their heads. They started gagging him after that.

It’s been so long now that he’s giving nothing more than huffs. It’s been so long now that he knows things. 

Eren knows quite a bit about the girls. There was Laura a blonde who was much taller than Eren with a pretty voice. Before she was taken she used to sing for money in wall Rose’s taverns and squares. Now she hums the tunes when she hasn’t screamed her voice raw. 

There was Astrid, the other blonde. A petit but fierce girl who has yet to give up. Eren envies her. She has taken to sitting in corners much like Eren but she has to be dragged to the mandatory row. Making her a favorite amongst their captors. 

And finally Jane. Jane doesn’t talk much but Eren knows she was grabbed off of one of the underground’s streets. She suspects she was traded off in exchange for money. She has no siblings. Jane has gravitated towards Eren and they huddle for warmth when it’s exceptionally cold in their cellar. Sometimes when he is buried in her hair he allows himself to think of Mikasa. 

Eren knows their captors would come down to visit three times a day and a fourth time with food and water that was to be spread between the four of them. Eren can only count to fifteen so he has no idea how long he has been down here. Much more than fifteen days at least. Eren knows there are at least 8 men plus the supposed leader. There are always no more than two of their captors in the cell with them at a time. Eren has no idea why but he is grateful for it to be no more. 

There is also a great deal Eren doesn’t know. Eren doesn’t know what it is like upstairs. Are they even in a basement? Or are they just in a cold windowless room? If they are not in a basement, what floor level are they on? How many more men are there? How is he supposed to kill them? How are they supposed to getaway?

Eren supposes he could go and see. He doesn’t even know if there is a door at the top of the stairs. He’s never heard one. 

And so Eren’s plan is born.

* * *

Their captor’s start to notice things about Eren fairly slow but then again Eren knows people are willfully oblivious to what is out of the norm. There is a man with short blonde hair and his body dressed in a white suit was bigger than any other Eren had seen before. This man knows of Eren’s freakishness. This man disgusts him the most. The man would instruct his captor’s to move him into a different room and make him presentable. Presentable as in naked and on a chair. He has Eren bend in ways that snap his bones and rips his skin. What is he doing here? Why does he never do as he’s told? He chokes slightly feeling a dribble of warmth slide down his cold chin. He can’t wipe it away because they have bound him together again.

“Please don’t disappoint me. It’s so rare I get to have a treat so sweet as you.”

Not for the first time Eren begins to whimper and curl in on himself, “Please… please…” 

The man’s eyes go wide and his mouth curls upward, “Of course,”

All Eren’s muscles flex and tighten as he starts to scream.

* * *

It becomes obvious fairly quickly that this man is above the others in ranking. They are quick to scurry and complete what is ordered of them. They wash him and dry him. They give him scraps of bloody uncooked meat to sustain him. 

“I thought you were saving me for Him” Eren’s voice croaked as they washed his feet.

“Who do think Him is?” 

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Who?”

“Jason.”

* * *

Eren always heals. Normally the progression of healing picks up after eating the delicious meat he is given. Eren doesn’t remember meat ever tasting so good. Strangely though his body heats and produces steam from the wound. Jason is gleeful but Eren suspects it’s unsafe to comment.

“I’ve noticed you’ve been drifting, Eren. And that just won’t do.” 

Eren shudders.

“Countdown from 1000 by 7’s and recite the numbers out loud.”

Thus he learns to count.

“You should really thank your father for this. If not for him you wouldn’t nearly be this much fun.” Mikasa who he knows can't be real agrees too. 

Eren thinks of his dad and the countless needles and headaches he gets after coming up from the basement. 

* * *

”The Chinese Red-Headed centipede is the largest centipede you can find within the walls. I’m gonna put him in your ear, ok?” This, of course, is not ok. Although before so much as a gasp can escape him the centipede is making its way into his ear canal and he screams.

“Please! No! No! N-No! O-Out! Get it out! It’s r-rooting-”

Jason laughs. Eren laughs.

* * *

“I am sorry to say that our time together is cut short but I’ll be back soon,” Jason looks genuinely sad, “I have yet to eat you.”

Eren doesn’t know why it’s only then that it becomes apparent that Jason’s a ghoul. Eren had only known of one personally from his hometown, the Shiganshina District, but the Garrison was swiftly made aware and Eren hadn’t seen the ghoul again. Eren’s mother had made sure that he was hidden indoors at the time and he wasn’t allowed out of her sight until weeks afterward. When he had asked her why ghouls were so bad she had said, “Ghouls are worse than titans, they have their own brains, they eat people much like we would eat our own cattle.”

* * *

Eren is quickly moved back in with the girls but Eren knows the layout to the building to the other room. Their captors should have blindfolded him. Fools. 

“We’re getting out soon,” these are Eren’s first words to Jane in a long time. His voice is barely audible and cracked from overuse. 

“What?” Jane's voice is quiet but Eren knows she’ll do as she’s told. 

“Stay close to me,” he says when he hears someone start to descend the stairs.

It’s a redhead he has heard being referred to as Austin and a familiar but unnamed brunet. His two firsts. He is overcome by terror but he wades into relief as he knows they will be the first to go.

Eren and Jane go to sit in their regular spots in line and once Laura and Astrid are forcibly made to join them, Jane makes herself as small as possible. Eren doesn’t know whether it’s his rotten luck or a gift in disguise that a fist is formed around his hair and he is jolted upwards. The man’s thing is shoved into his face and thwacks him when he doesn’t open his mouth. “Open,” the brunet commands.

“Yes, Sir,” Eren lifts his palm to the man’s outer thigh and opens his mouth. All in a swift motion, Eren moves up grabs the knife on the man’s belt by its handle and bites down. The man makes a distressed choked sound at the crunch and hunches forward. 

“Max?” The redhead makes to step forward but falters briefly before charging when he sees Eren produce the knife and plunge it deep into the man’s stomach before dragging it down. Blood drizzles from Eren’s mouth before he opens his mouth and flesh falls out. 

“Gross,” Why couldn’t the other man just die already? Did Eren really need to go through the struggle of killing the other captor? Although Eren knew this other man needed to hurt for being the monster he is. That was one of his father’s rules. Only bad people and if you’re going to kill them at least make it hurt. Eren yanks his knife from the brunet’s chest and the man drops limp sideways towards the redhead. Eren trots towards the man with a relit purpose that hadn’t been in his strides for many weeks, months, what did it matter. 

The man continues the race across the stoned room towards the small boy and grabs him by his neck before relinquishing when Eren plunges the knife home in the man’s shoulder. 

“I am going to leave here now,” Eren forgotten to be inclusive again. Ah well, the heat of the moment and all that. Eren takes his knife and plunges it back in a little ways off to the left of the stomach. 

“Not home though,” the man rasps through the pain. He’s barely struggling anymore, Eren doubts the man can move with all scarlet pooling around them. “Don’t you know? We only take sold kids. Kids who won’t be missed.” Eren supposes if he could feel he would be more than angry. 

And bless Astrid when she takes the knife from the redheads hip and stabs it into the side of the man’s stomach. There is hope for her yet. The man makes a strangled air-filled groan. He turns and jumps on the redhead and drives his knife into the man’s eye. The man falls back with a thump and a crack when his head hits the concrete. Eren sits on the man’s chest and huffs in overexertion. He needs to keep moving. He pulls the knife from the man’s face.

“We gotta keep moving,” He turns his head to see Jane frozen in place on the floor and Laura and Astrid making their way to the stairs. “Hold on a second.”

Eren forces his body to move towards Jane and kneels in front of her. “Janie. We have to go now.” Eren knew that nicknames helped. They made people feel wanted. He shakes her arms and pulled her towards the stairs. She takes a few seconds but he becomes confident that she is moving on her own. He lets go of the girl and climbs the stairs. There is a two-part curtain at the top of the stairs that Eren peeks through. Stupid idiots.

The first thing Eren notices is the blinding light streaming in from the window at the end of the short hall before he ducks back inside the dark curtain.

“It’s daytime. It hurts,” Eren stops his obvious verbal thoughts before instructing his group to duck their heads in and out of the curtain to get used to seeing light after not being under such exposure after so long. It takes them longer than what is wise but it’s not like they can go anywhere before they can all see. Lastly, Laura had adjusted to the light and they make their way out. A man walking in their direction from around a corner underneath a set of stairs. Too late for them to go back behind the curtain, the man starts to yell and run towards the and the foursome go the only direction possible go.

Which unfortunately happens to be up to the stairs to their slight left. Up the stairs is another hallway lined with four rooms and a dead end. There is a window carved from the brick at the end of the hallway. Eren’s feet slap the cool wooden flooring as he runs. He leaned out of the window to see they are on the second floor and a wagon of hay attached to a horse carriage conveniently placed below them but as he turns to help Jane out and through he hears a scream.

The man chasing them had caught up and grabbed Astrid around the middle and hauled her across the floor moving towards the stairs. Astrid’s limbs flail and punch and kick. She screams for Laura, for him, for Jane, for someone to help her. That she doesn’t want to go back to that place. Through all their commotion men have gathered their way up the stairs. Eren unfreezes himself from his position, he knows there’s nothing he can do. He turns back to Jane, he moves his hands to her sides and thighs as he helps her up onto the ledge. Jane shakes and sobs, “Janie, I’ll be there with you in a second but you need to jump.” Eren’s chest constricts. “Jane! Now!” Jane propelled her feet forward, her hair a halo whirling around her torpedoing body as she lands in the hay. 

Laura helped Eren up onto the ledge and Eren tugged her up after him. His feet were barely on the windowsill before he is pushed forwards by small hands and Laura is wrenched from behind him with a jerk and a grunt as her throat is whipped backward with her body. Eren falls forward landing into the hay hard next to Jane. He barely hears the scream from the window above them over the noise of outside. The carriage starts moving and Eren relishes the stale smell of the hay. Eventually, Eren flips his body over, he can feel the imprints in his face from the straw. The first thing Eren notices is that there is no sky. There are flaming torches here and there for warmth and light but no sky. There is just a rock. Tall rock pillars lead up from the ground up into the rock ceiling. By any guess from the bumpiness from the ground, the ground must be rock too. Eren doesn’t smile like Jane’s smeared face is. 

“Jane?” Eren shudders, colder than he usually is. “Where are we?”

“I’m sorry, Eren,” She starts to cry.

“Janie?” He’s sure he knows.

“The underground.”

He hasn’t escaped yet. He has just taken one step in the right direction. Whatever direction that was because he's sure as hell wasn’t going home. 

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Eren finds his footing in the Underground City and loses it rapidly after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been 8 months. I have no excuse:(
> 
> At least Levi swears in this one.

Eren has very little to help him tell time. He can feel the cold seep through his clothes and into his skin but that could mean just about anything. It could mean it’s getting closer to winter rather than night time and there was also the obvious, they were in a cave. Jane’s hair had grown and the two had taken to braiding it. Eren’s sat long in his face. It warmed Eren to sit with Jane and pretend that they were safe underneath the stairs to a more elevated street. They had claimed the crevice as their own. Jane sat in front of Eren facing towards the dwindling crowds on one of the sideroads. 

The two not-yet-teens travel often. Not staying in one place longer than two or three days. The Underground City is large and even in Jane’s eight years of living in the city she had only been to 3 wards out of the 24. The city consists of 4 main islands and a smaller one near the centre that is made up of the main military headquarters that is separated from the CCG and the surrounding residences of the 17th ward. All the Islands are connected by monitored bridges. 

The 24th ward however is something entirely separate from the rest of the city. Down below in the unpatrolled canyons between the stone platforms lie ghouls in unknown numbers. The likelihood of seeing a 24th ward ghoul is slim but on their travels the pair have seen one. Eren was scouting out a new alley by the cliff side for the two to sleep in for the night. It was a thin pale thing, standing hunched at the rocks edge. Clothes hung long and close to its body, no shoes on or near the tall being. Eren wouldn’t have thought anything of it if they hadn’t already been watching him with wide kakugan eyes. It’s teeth were yellow in it’s open jawed mouth and it’s face was wrinkled with a snarl. It’s body stalked towards him with a grace that didn’t belong.

“So rich, so young, so lith,” The ghouls tongue got caught around the words and Eren started moving backwards down the narrow alley. The ghoul starts again, “So new, so different. Such tender sweetness, and mellow harmony. Now to taste,” The ghoul’s kagune appears fast as it sprouted from ghoul’s back and spiked it’s way through Eren before retracting. Eren screamed before coughing blood and collapsing on the ground still. This is one moment Eren was thankful for the military police, even if they were wasted at the time. Drawn by the sound of his scream they turned the corner into the alley and distracted the ghoul enough for Eren to get up and escape. 

Jane and Eren currently reside in the 13th ward, there are many battles between ghouls, investigators and military police. The ghouls are from what Eren’s gathered loyal to Yamori or more commonly known by the alias of Jason. This happens to be one of the reasons the two can’t stay in one place for too long, Eren has dealt with one too many ghouls looking for him after his escape.

They shared a bag that Eren carried in majority. It had few things in it. A bit of food Jane had swiped from the merchants when they passed through. This was something they did rarely as it was dangerous for the two of them to go and steal anything from well guarded boxes. And the people down here weren’t, well, kind. However, Jane had taken the chance when two robbers older than they were knocked a few boxes down and they had cracked open. 

Jane had grabbed a few vegetables of a range of colours and legged it. They had previously been hiding out in an alley near the main street near the stairs up to the light but they had to relocate to stay uncaught. They had been lucky that time. Eren usually has to steal bread from other people and fall off bridges and buildings to get away.

Eren’s body just pulls itself back together when he slaps against the concrete. He knows it should hurt more than it does. He makes sure Jane is well hidden away under their stair-alcove when he does this. He knows it’s not normal. He’s always hungry and no matter how much of the bread or the vegetables he eats he doesn’t get any fuller. The food itself is gross. It tastes of mold and three day old warm juice. Jane had answered when questioned that there is nothing wrong with her food. So again it must be Eren. He stops eating all together. It’s just a waste, he would rather save Jane all the food he can. At least he doesn’t feel disgusting anymore. He sees men lying in the streets, legs paralyzed and unmoving. Medicine is hard to come by and it’s easier to do everything in his power to stop symptoms from arising than dealing with them after they have arrived.

Everything around him reminded him of his hunger. A prostitute on the side of the street makes her way towards the edge of the road and Eren perks up. She smells so good, absolutely divine, a complex quality of flavours. Eren shouldn’t be able to smell her from so far away. Nor should he be able to smell the sweat on the body of the military police when they pass them. 

They also have a blanket but Eren runs hot and he makes sure to wrap the blanket tightly around Jane. She always objects. 

“Eren, come here. You need to stay warm too.” She always sounds older than she is.

They were in this together, she would say. Eren just says he’s not cold, that he has thick skin from living in Shiganshina. While that is complete and utter bird turd to Eren, Jane wouldn’t know any better. It’s not long after they move to the staircase that Eren starts to notice the leers from a group of older men across the road and in a small courtyard between buildings. They remind Eren of their kidnappers. Eren knows that he should get up and move to a new hiding place but he’s hungry and he’s surprised he hasn’t eaten Jane yet at this point. His stomach is caved in, his hips jut out and ribs are prominent. He should just give in. He’s aware of what he’s about to agree to but at least it will be someone who deserves to die. 

“Janie? I’ll be right back.” Eren leans on his arms and halls himself up the wall into a standing position. 

“Eren?” Her eyes are wide and panicky. She barely speaks nowadays but when she does, it's always worth listening to. She’s all he needs.

“Just gonna pee and get you a sweater. It’s starting to get colder out now. I’ll just be a minute.” It’s a weak excuse, she might insist on coming.

Thankfully she doesn’t, “Ok.” She leans her body up onto the bag and watches from the hidden corner under the stairs. 

Eren starts to make his way slowly towards the men across the street and he looks at them as he keeps walking. Smiling, he makes his way down the next alley and starts moving faster when he hears the slapping of shoes on concrete. The men jeer and curse after his underfed form. He turns his body into a dead end and his bones creak. He breathes deep and turns to them. A man is on him before he can fully turn around and his torso is smashed against the wall, his cheekbone cracks with the force.

The erection is pressed into his back but all he can think about is how ravenous he is and the hand millimeters from his mouth. He stays quiet as he zones out from the arguing of his meal and sinks his teeth into the fleshy part of the hand. As the man yells and jerks away, Eren yanks his head away and brings the thumb with him and into his mouth. The blood on the hand bubbles and tumbles down past the wrist. Eren wants to lick it. The meatsacks should know better than to pull this shit in the 13th ward.

The other men are in various states of yelling, running and freezing but his meal is clinging to his torn hand on the ground, crying his pain, his brain still catching up to the reality that he is no longer the predator. Eren bares his teeth and swings his light body into the crying man as his legs give up their use and he falls. He tears and barely chews and swallows in rapid succession. Once he’s finished he lays next to what’s left. 

Tears start to form in his eyes and his throat clogs. He’s become exactly what his mom hated. He’d hurt someone. He’d killed someone again. He’d eaten someone. His body begins to shake as he stands and sobs leave his body. It tasted delicious. This man had filled him in ways food couldn’t. He felt irrationally strong. What had Jason done to him? What had Jason said? That it is thanks to his father that he is here. That his father had stabbed him with those needles and injected him with ‘vitamins’. ‘Vitamins’ that would make him strong. Strong indeed. 

Eren hears the yells of voices from the end of the alley. He can’t be here and found with all  _ this.  _ So feeling his strength, Eren hauls himself from the ground and rapidly begins to climb the round stone slab made building to his right. The stone cuts his hands but this pain isn’t quite what he used to. He supposes he has a higher threshold now. Once he has rolled onto his back on top of the building his tears stop and he can hear the commotion below him.

The voices are erratic and loud. He clearly hears the clammer of people and a thud as if they had run into each other. There is a gurgling choking sound and the smell of acid followed by, “Oh god.”

Once he makes it back to Jane he picks up their shared sack and tells her they have to move. She doesn’t comment on his bloody shirt nor the lack of sweater nor that he’s been gone longer than he’s ever left her alone before.

“Thank you,” she says.

They find themselves below a building canopy next. It’s secluded and hidden. 

They are there six whole days before Eren finds work. It happens when Eren is hungry again and he sees a man beating another. There isn’t anyone else around outside.

“You good for nothing, useless, piece of shit!” The man yells, his foot swinging repeatedly into the smaller blond man’s stomach. The brunet doesn’t stop his kicking until the blond’s sounds stop. The brunet stands breathing hard, nearly clean and very much steady on two large shoed feet. He has his hand over his face when Eren finally slinks his way out of the shadows. 

“What did he do?” Eren’s voice is measured. He doesn’t actually know why he’s speaking to this man, he supposes it might be because he hasn’t spoken to someone other than Jane in who knows how long. Really though, Eren doesn’t care.

“Fuck off kid,” The man’s voice is gruffier now, uncaring.

Eren pushes forward, “Did he do something wrong?” Eren stood in front of the man now peering over the deadman. Eren wonders if the man will let him take the body. It would sure save him some work. He had pushed himself too long this time, nearly a month and a half.

“Does it matter?” The man is looking at him now, a bit more attentive. As if he’s thrown the man off.

“No.”

“He was supposed to kill someone for me.”  _ Well that’s awfully forward and incriminating,  _ Eren thinks. 

“Does this somebody still need to die?” Eren supposes this could be rather easy pocket money. He has gotten better at killing people.

“And what? Are you gonna kill him for me?” The man says with an incredulous look. His dark tense features look odd on his square face now.

“Sure.” The man is looking for a killer and he doesn’t believe Eren is capable. Which is... reasonable. 

The man actually laughs out right now. Whether at the conversation or the body or at Eren. Eren doesn’t care because he hears voices becoming clearer as they come closer from around a corner. He darts his face up in the direction of two Military police turning around a corner to their right. He proves Tony wrong however, when the man moves for his gun. Eren slits the throat of the first garrison soldier and wraps his small legs around the second’s neck and gouges his eyes out. Eren is gone and hidden before the soldier hits the ground.

The man’s face betrays nothing now. It impresses Eren. This man was all work and no play it seems. “Sure kid. You gotta name?”

His new employer is not a good man but what does it matter? Eren isn’t either. Over the following weeks, Eren discovers much. He finds out the year has progressed to pass into May which makes him 10 and when Eren does the math he has been in the Underground city for at least seven months. Tony, his employer and Eren rarely meet in person. Eren supposes this is normal. A child stolling into a Mafia compound, saying he is needed by the Boss there is rather ego stilting for others and absurd for the rarity with a brain. So Eren receives notes regularly detailing names, times, and a picture. Sometimes he receives brief instructions as well if the job is more than just an assassination. Sometimes he’s hired to make people hurt. Eren’s gotten used to it. He doesn’t mind anymore.

He starts paying rent at an offered residence at three payments in. Which is lucky because it’s starting to get colder during the day as the months lead closer to winter. Eren gets paid in paper slips. He gets up to fifty of them sometimes if he has to go out of his way on a job. He sometimes gets less if he doesn’t have to go out of his way. He doesn’t know what any of the money adds up to but when he handed over five of the bills he got a generously sized pouch to put it all in. It adds up quickly though. He spends little on himself, a new pair of pants and a bar of soap. Majority of his spendings go to Jane. He buys her food and a coat, even though it puts a dent in their savings. It’s all he can afford for now but really it’s all they need.

Eren’s mind starts to focus on their next escape. He doesn’t know how he’s supposed to leave this place but he’ll find a way.

  
  


That’s when Jane gets sick. It would have happened sooner or later. They lay next to each other wrapped in a blanket huddled on the floor.

“Eren. I love you,” Her voice is shaking whether from her fragile lungs or the cold he doesn’t know. He stays quiet most of the time. Jane is usually the only kind voice he hears. 

He looks at her, eyes pleading, he doesn’t understand why. He tilts his head forward leaning into her coldness lending her his warmth. What did she do to deserve this? He couldn’t protect her.

“You’ll go won’t you?” Her voice is sweet but thick like honey.

“Hmm?” His sound is rough and deeper than he remembers. Her skin is pale and dirty much like her hair which is dying at the ends.

“You… You’ll go out right? You’ll take me to the ocean? Right? Like you promised?” Her eyes are dilated and her whites are yellow. He did promise and he will. She’ll make it there. He told her of his life before. Of his mum and of Arlerts. The Arlerts and their dreams Eren hopes he’ll learn to fight to fight off those small shits that would corner him and beat him. He told her of the ocean. He told her of the blue, the waves, the salt and the sand. They imagined it together, the water and the sun.

“Your feet will stand in the water, I promise you.” He says it so firmly, so loudly he shocks himself at his own out of character action. She started to breath heavily now. Her eyes start to widen and she either voluntary or involuntary leans her body forward, it doesn’t matter. 

He folds his arms around her body and brings her flat to his body. He hears more than feels her heart pounding weakly as she falls asleep. When her heart finally tapers out he whispers, “ I love you too.”

And he was alone.

* * *

His money starts to build up a little faster now that he doesn’t have to buy food. So he moves to somewhere a bit nicer with more than one room in the fourteenth ward. He still has a marble floor, stone walls and a stone ceiling. He buys a piece of furniture every few months from the closet marketplace. By the time he’s more than a foot taller he has a bed and a shabby table with a singular chair in his room. He has blankets and a pillow of his own. He has a cabinet where he puts his clothes. He never throws any of his old clothes away unless they are ruined beyond repair. He sticks his money in the false bottom of the cabinet. He has three large rolls gathered with twine. In the main area he buys things he doesn’t need but he’s learned they’re equally as important to his clothes to blend in. 

While other criminals get the leway of either fear or people not actually caring, ghouls get no compromise. Even from Tony, he has to hide. He is a normal teenager with an adept talent for making people feel pain. He comes from nowhere. He is just Eren. Nothing more. The less people know the better. And if they do know? Well, they would be a meal wouldn’t they? He buys a few plates just in case and some cutlery. The last thing he needs is an investigator coming by and acting curious over his lack of human amenities when he can afford more than one blanket. 

A singular pot and pan sit on the high shelves above his countertop. He has an unused oven. He has a small sink made of something that he only has in his bathroom across the room. Where he keeps a bar of soap and other cleaning supplies. He has a chipped tea cup on his round table with a small spoon and a small dented container of coffee that he nicked from a shop not to long ago. It happens to be the only thing of human consumption he can stomach. The chairs are comfy there. He has a couch leaning against a wall, a gray/green colour that desperately needs to be cleaned. His space is impeccably clean. He has a few newspapers as his sole reading material stacked on display perfectly on the small table next to his couch. He craves for more to sate his boredom. So he turns to cleaning to try and satisfy that little growing itch at the back of his mind.

Eren has formed the habit of thievery. Over the years working for the Fernandez’ Clan’s Mafia and living as a ghoul, he has taken the time to wander around the home’s of his victims and acquire a new thing or two. This was how he got his big pot. He didn’t want to buy something that was never going to be used. At least now it looks worn anyway. If there are books, which is rare, he always takes the books. He has learned he is more than likely going to find literature in the houses of merchants and military. He can’t say they don’t deserve what’s coming to them.

When he runs out of places to clean, he trains. He tucks his feet under his bed and pulls his body into sit ups. He runs on the dark roof tops and jumps between buildings. He’s fast and it becomes easy. He yearns for the struggle. For the burn of his legs. He makes his way to a different residential district to keep anonymity. 

He’s a ghoul. There’s no way to avoid the fact. He remembers how he struggled to come to terms with it. How he doesn’t eat human food but the humans themselves. He is fast, he is strong and his senses are unmatched by any other species to his knowledge. He is at the top of the food chain. Unless you count what’s outside the walls. He has cut off limbs and they have steamed heat before growing back rapidly. It barely hurts anymore. He’s met a few other ghouls. It’s a small community. There is only one place he’s found where they meet up to congregate and that is a place Eren vastly avoids. The organization, if you can call it that, is called Aogiri Tree. Even though Eren is strong for a ghoul he would rather remain unnoticed. He has seen what they do and Eren isn’t very keen on the strife of revolution.

When he goes on his ghoulish excursions he makes sure to wear his mask. He had it made at a fairly high price by Uta, an odd ghoul with a terrifying aura of bloodlust and possibly amusement. Uta had created a black zipped gas mask that covers the bottom half of his face and right human eye while leaving his left kakugan eye on full display under and around his long dull, brown hair. The zipped portion of the mask is made looser than the rest of the mask and holds grooves implying the illusion of teeth around the harsh silver zipper.

He keeps up with his diet. He can go about a month on just one full corpse and then push it another before he gets desperate. He doesn’t let it get that far. This diet has earned him a mild fame. They call him Aghanashini, Destroyer of Sins. He usually stakes out his prey prior to his meal. He has a certain taste for bad people, human or ghoul. He supposes it’s his way of passing judgement and picking up the slack of the military police. Ghouls taste disgusting but he has learned that in cannibalizing his own kind he grows in strength. He needs this. He doesn’t know how he will survive this place without this strength since he lacks numbers. 

Eren is standing on the side of a two story building when he sees the building. It’s familiar and slightly taller than the others, on the corner of a wider cobbled road and small narrow one a cart wouldn’t be able to make it down. It’s a complete fluke he had found it. He scouts out sometimes looking for it but more frequently in his younger years. Eren was too young when he had escaped to remember much of the route he had taken for their escape. They’ve upped security. He can see the glass on windows that hadn’t been there before. There are two men guarding the front doors. Three stories plus a basement he knows is there.

Eren crouches down on the rooftop and produces his mask from his back pocket and pulls it over his face. He pushes with his legs and hurls himself, landing gracefully quietly on rooftop to rooftop as he makes it to stand on top of the damned building. He peers over the edge of the roof to find an opening, long since unafraid of heights or falling. He finds a pair of closed shutters towards the back of the building. The quietly pulls a side open from his position and with his sense of smell he knows it's safe to flip into the building. He pulls the blind shut behind him and steers his body to glide across the empty bedroom towards the door. He tilts his head to smell the people through the door. 

Eren tilts his head against the door after flicking the lock to push it open slightly and pull another body into the room with him and closes it quickly again. His hand is already around the man’s neck as he squeezes.

“Say a word and I’ll cut your dick off,” His voice is steady and seething with anger as he leans over the man on the ground. He watches the struggle to breathe as shock takes over and he cuts his dick off anyway. He steps over the man and pushes the door open and rapidly moves towards the brunet facing the stairs down and twists his neck and helps him fall to the ground soundlessly in his paralysis mouth open wordlessly. He’ll be able to watch, to hear and to feel and that’s what's important. Eren puts a timer on it and stabs the man in the thigh. He watches the man start to bleed profusely. 

Eren turns around. He needs to finish this floor quickly. He rushes to the next room and the next and the next. There is blood and blood and blood. It is what he needs. His hunger long sated. He can hear the sounds of feet making their way up the stairs and when he steps out the room he can only imagine the man’s horror as he shits himself. 

A mere boy he probably does not recognize standing still at the end of the corridor mouth and bare forearms and hands covered in blood. The cascade of blood from the unzipped section of his mask sticking his faded white shirt to his unusually ripped stomach. His thoughts could have been ‘no,no,no’ or ‘Oh fuckkkkkk.’ but before they become something along the lines of scream Eren’s Kagune is ripped from his body and through his shirt. The fluid red muscle moving and turning it way into the man and out dropping him to the floor before moving behind Eren.

Eren tilts his body backwards stretching out his limbs before moving forward with a certain pace. He makes his way down the stairs and launches himself forward slicing through flesh with a practiced ease. He soon finds himself in the office of the main man, Max. 

“Hello Maxie,” Eren smiles closed-eyed, feeling the adrenaline bliss rushing through his body. 

“You-” Max has gotten older. The what? Six years? Haven’t treated him well. His skin droops underneath one eye more than the other. His once dark hair now a full salty thin head. He grows paler the more seconds pass as Eren sways back and forth in his hysteria. Max collects his remaining useful brain cells and cries out, “Help! Mihael!”

“Oh no, no. That won’t do. There’s no one left,” Eren soothes. Max’s breathing starts to pick up before Eren continues more to himself, ”I have a few questions if that’s alright? Hmmmmmm.” Eren's foot finds Max’s chest pushing him to the floor, ”Is that alright?”

“Yes!” The man yelps the word out with a stuttering gulp that represents nothing of once confidant monster Eren knew him as.

“Right. So your man told me you buy children?” Eren’s nose flares. He can feel the anger coursing through his veins

“Yes!” The man repeats himself.

“So my father…” Eren ponders.

“No-” The man gasps, “A woman approached us.”

“A woman?” Eren starts to fill with dread.  _ Don’t say it. _

“I don’t remember her very well but she had these eyes. Brown but still so very much like the sun,” The man is almost fond.  _ My Mother.  _

Eren is almost tempted to run him through then and there. His Father he could see. He had come to terms with it but his mother… No. 

“Who were you going to sell me to?”

“We already sold you. T-to Jason.” 

“Now. Now. You were being so voluntary up until now what changed. Before Jason.”

The man is silently gasping, looking in every direction but towards Eren, “The King.” Eren lowers all his weight onto his foot. There is a crack as he breaks the ribs and a squelch of the organs in the man's body unable to hold their own against Eren. The man dies with a huff and a gurgle.

Eren stands tall with a pant looking around before letting out a throat ripping roar. He starts destroying everything in sight. All eight of his limbs reach out and swing widely. 

_ HIS MOTHER. HIS MOTHER. HIS FUCKING BIRTHGIVER. How dare she? He was hers to love and protect. How could he have never seen? Everyday before the age of nine he was blind to the Devil that lay awake inside his mother. Did she know what he was? Was that why? His father’s experiments finally poke to far for his dear mother’s liki- _

He hears a shuffle and a cry. He acts in irrational anger. He removes the beam blocking the passage way and leaves. Let them fend for themselves like he did.

* * *

He doesn’t think about it because really what’s the point? He has no one to meet on the surface anymore. He would rather stay down here where he is allowed to thrive as a ghoul. Evil should be with evil after all. If he were to look back at himself now in the future he would probably decide that he has some of the worst coping mechanisms. He delved into his work. He asked Tony for jobs. He remembers one job where the blond couple killed looked vaguely familiar. He gets these jobs sometimes. Someone asks too many questions and they have to be put down before they start finding answers. Eren hadn’t realized what he had done until he had smelled first, seen later, the small infant sitting in a basketed kot. He had gotten many books there before returning to the Underground City through the same ceiling cavern he had escaped through.

When the assassinations and interrogations weren’t enough he took matters into his own hands. He went out hunting even when he wasn’t hungry. He couldn’t be left alone in his own flat to think. He just worked and worked, moved and moved. No job was more important than another. That was until The Job. 

He’d met Tony personally for this one, a rarity in and of itself. They had met in one of Tony’s warehouses by the edge of the city near the exit up in Tony’s office allocated directly across from the front entrance. 

Eren arrives in dark pants and a brown hooded sweater. Eren walked through the traffic of people milling about and working, His booted feet tapping the concrete. He rarely comes here, it’s irregular and Eren doesn’t like the risk of what coming here entails. He ponders that it’s possibly been a full year. He walks to the far left side and makes his way towards the wooden steps before stopping when the sound of a voice shouts out for him to stop.

“What are ya doin in ‘ere kid? The likes of you runt aren’t supposed ta be ‘ere?” The man’s voice is strong but oddly not brutish. “Mr. Fernandez has a very important man coming in today. I can’t have the likes of you causing trouble.” 

Eren just twists his upper body to stare blankly at the man. This should be interesting.

“Listen kid,” The man speaks a bit quieter now that he sees others starting to pay attention from their stations. “I’ll let this go if you leave now, eh?” He clasps his hand around Eren’s arm pulling him back the way they came.

Eren loses his smirk and wrenches his arms from the man with an outstanding show of strength that causes the man to stumble before gaining his footing, “Now!” The voice is booming and the man is walking towards him. “Listen here kid-” 

“Please… Do your worst.” Eren bows forward rolling his arms with a silly grin on his face all irritation gone. 

“YOu little fu-”

“Eren!” Tony’s voice is loud throughout the room. “My office. Now.”

The man in front of him drains of colour so Eren rubs, “Byebye,” with a wave and a showy turn as he moves at a casual pace up towards Tony.

“Would you stop antagonizing my workers.” Tony rubs his head in defeat as they walk into his office, closing the door behind them.

Eren lets his face go slack, “I’m not antagonizing anyone.” Antonio shifts uncomfortably before changing the topic.

“Ok. So, here,” Tony drops a thin file on top of his desk as they both go to sit down. “It’s an easy in and out job. He’s a military man making a recruitment speech down near Tenner’s.” Ward six, a bit out of the way. Eren flips open the folder to see a narrow face of a picture of a man whose eyes are too close together attached to very few pages. Eren flips through them following Tony’s words.”It’s a sniper job. There is a room directly across from the target.” Eren nods. “It’s important that this gets done tomorrow night. When there is a gap in their security. They send their troops out tomorrow morning and they aren’t back until the day after. You should be able to escape in the chaos. Everything you need is in the folder.” Tony goes about shuffling some papers on his desk dismissing Eren.

“There’s no name on the back of the picture.” Eren says evenly.

“Yup,” Tony breathes heavy as he leans over to open a drawer.

“Who’s the guy? Some military guy, really?”

“You know the rules Eren. No questions.” Tony looks Eren dead in the eye. Eren knows there is no use intimidating the man if he wants to keep his job. 

“Yeah. Right.” He huffs as he stands, not tired.

“Come back here when you’re done with clean up. I have another job when you are done. It’s long term.”

* * *

Mask across his face, Eren moves a table in line with the window, already familiar with his surroundings after scouting ahead the night prior. The coldness of the night air is brittle against his skin. Eren wishes he was less wiry as he lies against the hard table. He has propped himself up, staring down the barrel of his own rifle at the man. His ghoulishness allows him to not have to use a scope to see in the darkening light or the distance. The man appears to have a high ranking in the Military Police if he is doing a recruitment speech down in the underground. Disgusting piece of filth working for the King. Eren slowly and gently squeezes the trigger, ending the man's life, hitting his target directly between the eyes before he starts to unscrew and rapidly clean up the area around him. Having packed his bag, he hears MPs start to swing his way. He flips himself up on the roof of the building, landing on both feet before hurriedly fleeing the scene.

“There! See him?” A military officer shouts towards the other Military Police. Eren jumps high and far. “Ghoul!” There are too many of them to cut through

Eren runs towards one of the cliff sides. He’s close, Almost there. The MPs are fast. He knows he has to find somewhere to hide. He can’t keep going and He’s going to run out of space to run soon. He contemplates jumping off one of the cliffs but he doesn’t know how he will get back up. Do they even have a bottom? He drops down onto the ground and runs down the alleys and street at high speeds. He can see the edge of the cliff now. He can’t die like this. If they catch him they’ll kill but only after experimenting on him. He can’t go back to a place like that. So he jumps without hesitating and lands against the opposite wall of the canyon, digging into the wall with his Kagune when his hands and feet slip. He begins to climb. 

The Military Police will have to go back around the Island to the bridge that connects the two islands but by that time Eren intends on being gone. He drops his bag containing the file and gun down into the abyss. One less thing to worry about. He doesn’t know what the fuck Tony was on about. There were too many Military police there for that to be an easy in and out job. He crawls onto the side of the cliff, retracting his Kagune and taking off his mask.

“Hey! You!” Eren swivels around and sees more military running in his direction. Like what the fuck Tony? When have the military police ever been this effective and organized. Eren darts off low to the ground around a few corners before he finds an open window and pushes with his aching legs to get his body through the third story window. 

He closes the window before feeling a cold sharp edge against the nape of his neck, “Don’t shitting move.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all that commented and left kudos on my last chapter. xx


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi is introduced and Eren has to jump through hurdles yet again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end is a little more graphic than I meant it to be. Ah not sorry.

_ He closes the window before feeling a cold sharp edge against the nape of his neck, “Don’t shitting move.” _

“H-Hey, now.” Eren moves his hand back up to the catch on the window but freezing when the knife digs into his neck, a trickle of blood runs down his neck before soaking into his top. 

“I’ll just leave. I won’t come back,” His voice was breaking and he didn’t know why. Why did he fear this so much? He’s fallen off buildings, lost limbs for christ sake. What’s a stab to the neck gonna do anyway? Even as Eren began repeating this in his head, he couldn’t stop his body from sweating in fear. He really should just unleash his Kagune but he can’t afford to draw the attention of the Military Police officers. Especially since he can see them on the street through the window. His body feels dreadfully uncomfortable as he tries to angle his neck forward towards the window. 

“Are they after you?” The man’s voice is smooth and deep. The man is breathing deeply through his nose and evenly although Eren can hear his heart beating rapidly out of sync to his own and one other in what Eren can only guess is the next room over as his eyes stay fixed to the men on the street. 

“Yes.” Because what’s the point in lying. If he’s lucky this human may dislike the Military police enough to just let him go. 

“Why?” Eren finally let’s his eyes drift up and meets other’s sharp gaze in the reflection of the glass. The man is small, but by the one shoulder Eren can see he’s built and likely layered with muscle. In the warped glass the man’s hair is long around his ears but lacks the thickness Eren’s own has. His face is sharp and angular likely from malnutrition. He wouldn’t make a good meal. Eren rarely goes after those in lower economy brackets anyways unless they deserve to be ripped to pieces. The dark haired individual will live to see another day, he won’t hold the knife against him. Eren did break into his house after all. 

Realizing he’d left the silence too long Eren replies, “The gunshot. I killed one of the MPs.”

The man’s eyes narrow slightly and he sinks his body down behind him sinking out of sight from those below them. Eren can feel the body heat behind him, “Why?”

“Why else? Money. I wouldn’t get into that kind of trouble for nothing.” Lie, but whatever. The heat disappears as quickly as it had come. Eren can hear the flip of a knife and a few steps back before he turns around and leans back against the wall sensing the tension in the room defusing as the man turns his head to the side to look out the window. Eren takes the minute to look at the man, maybe teen in front of him. The man was dressed in dark charcoal pants, Eren couldn’t tell if they were buttoned pants or not from the untucked shirt that was baggy around the man’s torso and rolled up sleeves keeping his hands free.

“You can stay there to wait it out. Don’t move or I’ll smash that shitty face of yours into the concrete.” 

Eren barely had time to say, “Right. Thank you.” Before he left the room to answer the banging on the front door. 

Eren sunk his slim body into the corner beside the window and tall cabinet. He pulled his legs up to his chest and looked out to the room. There was a small bed in the corner of the room opposite the door and directly in front of Eren. There was a wooden chair against the wall on the other side of the window. Everything about the room was carefully placed and organized, even to Eren’s standards.

The voices in the other room were soft and Eren, against his better judgement didn’t really want to listen in. He paid attention to the sounds of feet, and the noise of breathing. That was until the voices raised from average volume. 

“You have to let me in to do the search!”

“Why the hell should I?” This voice was new, cracking slightly with pitch.

“Hey Kid! Lemme the fuck in.” There was a bang of the door against a wall and the stomping of soldiers walking out into the front room and the creak of a pair of hinges swinging open to another room in the flat. 

Eren got up off the floor as quietly as he could and stepped across the wooden floor boards to the front of the cabinet and slowly opened the door to peek inside. There was a line of hung up shirts and a spare pair of pants folded on the bottom of the cabinet. Eren shivered at the thought of getting near a stranger's carefully folded undergarments and lifted his leg up to fit inside. The shift of weight caused the wood below him to cave slightly and when he lifted his other leg to sit tightly inside the wooden cabinet the wood whined softly.

The people in the other room stopped their blundering suddenly before starting up again with the fast thudding of a MP officer’s feet against wood towards the room Eren was in. Eren had only pulled the door closed before the bedroom door opened. 

“Hey! Look your not supposed to be in here. We have a right to privacy-”

“Not when there’s an assassin on the loose.”

“Hey Shithead. Get the fuck out of my house. It’s just the shitty-cat.” The short man.

“Hey now-”

“Get the fuck out before I stuff your head up your ass.”

There was a pause and the Military police officer must have thought better of it because there was a shuffle of feet and a slam of the door shutting.

“Now, if you see-”

“Yeah. Yeah.” A slam and silence.

After what felt like minutes of Eren tracing the grains of wood of the inside of the cabinet he pushed the door slightly and swung himself out and closed the cabinet back up again. He walked the three paces before sinking back into the corner of the Bedroom. There was more shuffling out in the front room before the door opened and the short man walked in.

“I told you not to move.”

“They would have caught me that way.”

“Shitty Brat,” the man huffed. Brat? He couldn’t have been much older than Eren. “You got something I can call you?”

“Why?”

“Don’t be a shit,” The man’s tone was short. “I’m Levi.” The name was peculiar. The name must be from a different language. The man, Levi pulled the chair from the wall and swung it around to sit backwards leaning forward against it’s wooden back. A false sense of casualty. Eren can see how tense he is.

Fair’s fair, Eren supposes. “I’m called Eren.”

“Ok, Eren.” He says as if testing the name. “How old are you?”

“What’s it matter?”

“Do you want to stay here? I could just kick your dumbass out to the street to deal with the MPs on your own.”

“I do.” Eren stated before elaborating, “Want to stay that is.” He closed his lips together and pulled in his bottom lip thinking and glaring his defiance at the dark haired man’s shoes.

Eren didn’t know how old he was and his lack of peers didn’t grant Eren much in the way of social skills to dodge the question. From what Eren discovered on his own, asking someone how old they were is very rude and he has gotten a fair bit of grief for asking Tony and other people in his building more personal questions. What other questions will this Levi ask? Should Eren really be sharing this information with a stranger even if they did save him from the Military Police? 

“I don’t know.” Eren didn’t know the year he arrived in The Underground City nor did he know how long he was kept in captivity for. “I’ve lost track. Not twenty probably,” He tacked on for Levi’s sake. 

“I don’t either but you’re an adult right? Older than fourteen?” 

“Yeah,” Eren replied slowly, he’s been here for at least six years and that would make him at least fifteen.

The man stared at him for a moment before telling him he could stay for a few hours, long enough for the Military Police to disperse but then he had to leave. They moved out into the front room and Eren sat himself at the table in the kitchen area.

“Disgusting.”

“Huh?”

Levi only shot him a disgusted glare as he walked towards the opposite side of the living area as if the farther he got the cleaner he would be.

“We take our hygiene very seriously here. I’m sure we can spare some water to get you a little cleaned up.” The other person was young and brown haired, his face was much kinder than Levi’s. The boy beckoned him closer as he used a small bowl to scoop water from a larger container in the corner of the room. Eren stood just in arms reach as the man passed him the bowl. “You can use the sink in the kitchen.”

“Right. A-ah, Thank you.” Eren’s fingers nudged the man’s as he took the bowl of clear water. “S-sorry.” 

“It’s okay. I’m Farlan and you’ve met Levi,” Farlan nodded his head in Levi’s direction. “What’s yours?” 

“Eren. I’m Eren.” He exhaled as he crossed the few strides to the sink.

“Are you?” Farlan chortled. Eren rather felt he was going green rather than the red his face, back and chest were turning in face of Farlan’s easy conversation. When was the last time Eren spoke to someone without antagonizing them?

Farlan seemed to leave him be after that. He saw Levi move back into his room when Farlan started to wipe down the chair and table he had sat at prior. He felt bad but didn't judge. Eren would likely be the same if the positions were switched. Eren focused on scrubbing himself down. While he had no blood on his pants they were covered in dust and dirt from falling in the ravine. His shirt however was unsalvageable. The back was torn off him hanging by his sleeves and collar. He was just glad he wasn’t wearing a sweater or vest. His shirt was stained red and brown with blood and mud. How Levi and Farlan even allowed him inside was a phenomenon. 

Unfortunately, Eren counted his blessings too early. Farlan, he seemed to be a chatterbox. He spoke of nothing at all really. He badgered on about the walls and the non-existent sky. He seemed easily quelled with Eren’s odd word or nod. But he just didn’t stop and then he started with the damn questions. They were likely the same age and Eren has never been this inquisitive. Eren thinks he probably handled them well enough.

“So your name’s just Eren then?” Yep.

“Your eyes are a weird color did you know that?” Nope. Never owned a mirror. Which was then followed by: “Oh really? We have one! I can’t remember where we got it tho?” Which was then followed by a stream of incoherent mumbo jumbo.

“Why were you so beat up when you came here, eh? Was it the Military Police? Sodding lot they do? Prats the lot of them.” Sigh.

“Levi says that you are the one the Military Police are after. Why is that? Did you do something? Hmm. Well what does it matter? Levi and I do things to the Military Police all the time. There was one time where…” And on and on it went.

At least Eren knew more about this Levi. He’d yet to come out of the bedroom area that Eren entered through. Levi couldn’t be older than Twenty and as a resident of the Underground City many lack the steady jobs desired to pay taxes. It’s good that they’ve found something to get by on.

It’s getting dark outside now. The artificial lights that take up their stations on the streets are dimming. It’s better if Eren gets back home before they darken more. 

Eren makes to stand up before a small hand pulls his sleeve, “Are you leaving now?” Farlan’s face is crumpled

“Yeah. Have a good life kid,” Eren gets up off the couch.

“Are you coming back?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll see you round.” He really needed to leave now.

He went and knocked on Levi’s door. He stood still without really knowing what to say he went inside when Levi answered with a, “Yeah?”

Levi was sitting on his bed polishing his silver knife. He had one leg crossed over the other and was faced to the side. His eyes peeked through his front bangs. The word came out in a drawling long thing, “Leaving?”

“Ah Yeah. Thanks for covering for me and letting me-” Eren had his hand scratching at the back of his head. A habit he’d dropped a long time ago. “-stay here.”

“Yeah. I-” Eren was free out the window already. “I have a fucking door, Shithead.”

  
  
  
  


The journey back to his apartment was long. The lights had darkened completely on his walk. After going up the steps outside his building to his rooms, he stopped. The door was leaning open. The lock was broken and the doorknob was touching the mechanism in the frame but wasn’t closed. 

Eren took a second and closed his eyes pressing his back to the wall of the house. He breathed in deeply before exhaling, he listened. He heard the hustle and bustle of his neighbours, the walking of Military Police on the streets and the jeers of gangs in his area. It’s not safe at night. Even for the human Mafia. The night was prime for ghouls. The lack of people on the streets made it easy to pick off the odd homeless person and Military Police Officer without being seen. There was no one inside his apartment.

Eren nudged the door open with his hand and followed through the door fluidly before shutting it behind him, in case someone was watching the apartment. The place was ransacked. So much was gone. Eren couldn’t tell if this was from the Police searching his house or regular burglars or some of Tony’s men when he didn’t return on time. Maybe even a combination as there are many lingering scents throughout his space.

Unfreezing himself, he marched forward. There were papers everywhere from the newspapers he collected and the books that were supposed to be hidden underneath his bed. His kitchen was completely emptied. No pot or fork to be seen. Spectacularly his oven has been removed and vanished. His couches and chairs and table have been pushed and toppled over or missing. 

Eren rushed through his apartment to the cabinet and sees the false bottom has been completely smashed through, all his savings lost. 

“Fuck.” His hands dropped to the floor in fists as he lowered his head thinking. He heard the jeers getting closer. It was no longer safe. 

He still had the old bag from his time with Jane under his mattress. He opened his window and pulled the loose slab of rock from the sill and took his mask from its confides. He places it on his face and strips himself of this shirt and tosses it to the floor. He makes for the cabinet again and roots through the remaining clothes. Most are too small but he has two pairs of pants he knew that fit, one however was ripped at the knee but he supposed that didn’t matter. He only found one shirt and a hoodie and put both on to make room in the bag for more things along with the blanket from his bed and pants. He rolls and stashes his papers that detail his observations of the coming and goings in the Underground City. Walking into the main room he dodges around fallen objects to grab a kitchen knife and his toothbrush at the sink. 

He swings himself out his window and hangs from his neighbours closed sill. He opens the shutter before pulling himself up and in. He quietly makes his way across wooden floors and into the man’s kitchen area. He sees a sealed tall square tin on the top shelf and opens it to see ground dried leaves of tea and throws them over his shoulder. Eren wonders if he should go back and see if his coffee is still there. He scoops water out of his neighbour's barrel and swirls it round before pouring it uncaring, out the window to the side of the barrel. He scoops more water and then seals it shut and turns the can completely upside down to make sure there are no holes or leaks before tucking it in his bag. 

He spins around and looks at the apartment that is much like his own. He’s hungry but he can wait. He should eat farther away in case the Military make the connection to his now old life. He sways his way through the apartment and looks through the crack of the bedroom door. The poor man will have to live without socks for a while. His bag now holds four pairs of white socks.

  
  
  


Eren was livid. His entire life order has just been disrupted. Eren didn’t know where to go. He had no friends and very few acquaintances. That is if you can count his future meals and current Mafia affiliations acquaintances. So he started on his way toward Tony’s. He’ll get his money, rent a new place and then keep going as he was before. Keeping his head down and only going out of his way to get his next meal until things start to die down again. Until then however it would be in his best interest to give Aghanashini a break for a while. 

A few houses over he stopped, the water in his bag was sloshing and rattling about too much. He opened the bag, tossed the knife because what did he really need it for? He’s more than capable of protecting himself without one. He then wrapped his water tin in the blanket hoping that it would stifle the noise just enough. He needs to fit in better. This is very important, he’s learned this during the earlier investigations of Anghanishini. Life is much easier when other people can account for your whereabouts. So walking around and blending in as humans do is probably a fairly safe option. There are many risks of running on rooftops during the day. Say for example, if Eren were to miscalculate a jump and fall or stumble or just make too much noise it would make others aware of what he is. If he moves fast and low on the roof and runs far after he jumps he is less likely to be seen and if he is, he is likely to be mistaken for an MP or an investigator from the CCG that is stationed on the roofs. This then becomes a bigger issue. 

The first time Eren had ever seen someone from the CCG was shortly after Jane got sick. He’d left her in their little flat to go get food when he’d stopped right before a jump and looked down in an alley. He saw a woman fighting for her life and screaming bloody murder as she fought two investigators. He’d seen the woman around before, she was a sex worker who’d regularly serviced the Military, advertising herself from a window as to not get attacked on the street in the 13th ward. She hadn’t done anything other than want to survive. There was nothing he could have done. He’d turned around and went back the way he’d come.

He stops then and hides behind the closest chimney. He’s not far from Tony’s and if he’s lucky he can sleep in the man’s office until he gets there in the morning. He’d been running for hours already but he’d climbed below two bridges as well. He’s probably got three maybe four blocks to go. But there’s something on the other side of the road. It’s lurking above one of the groups of thugs on the corner. It drops down and spins, blood spilling. He can smell the ghoul before he sees the Kagune. It’s a purple swirling thing. He can almost recognize the ghoul but he can’t quite remember so he keeps running while it’s distracted.

“Magnifique!”

  
  
  


He breaks into Tony's office after sneaking around the guards and scaling the back wall, breaking the lock and making sure to slide to the window closed after himself. He crawls underneath Tony’s desk and sleeps a fitful sleep curled under his blanket. He wakes often at the odd sounds of a guards feet, the shift of darkness and air but he wakes for the day when he hears the unlocking of a door. Quietly as he can he stuffs his blanket into his bag before placing it on the outside of the desk, never letting go as he crouches to peak over the desk. He sees Tony’s back clad in black slacks and a white shirt, and brown jacket before he turns and points his guns at Eren. Eren would have been impressed if he were human and amused if he hadn’t been betrayed by the man. 

“Eren.” Tony smiles slightly, lowering his gun shakily. He exhales before, “What are you doing here?”

“Like you don’t know.” His former employer tightens his hold on the doorknob, “I’m here for my money Tony.”

The older man turned around after pulling down the blinds on his door, “Eren, you didn’t complete the job so you don’t get paid. You should know this by now. I need-”

“-confirmation. I know but the job went sideways since you told me they were going to send the majority of their troops out before the shooting. It’s on you. I killed the man, now I get my money.” He needed this money desperately. 

“Eren I can’t go around favouring people-”

“Did you know they broke into my house. Ransacked my things. They searched everywhere.” Eren stalked around the desk and flung the bag onto his back and fed his arms into the straps. “I wonder where they got that information? Hey! TONY! They sure as hell didn’t follow me home so how the hell did they get my address?” 

Tony had his gun pointed at him now, “I didn’t have a choice Eren.” There were feet rapidly going up the steps but Eren had already flung himself forward and ripped the man’s throat out before the man could pull the trigger. He was out the window by the time the office door opened. 

Again he was running and hiding. It would do better for him to go somewhere that wasn’t flooded with CCG unlike the ward 22 he was currently running through. He needed to go to wards five or twenty where ghouls are better at blending in and with less ghoul attacks come less CCG and Military Police. He should go down to the eleventh ward first though. He should be seen there first so he isn’t tracked all the way to the twentieth ward, he decides. The Twentieth ward is farther away but it’s bigger and if they do track him down there it is less likely for them to find him in such a seemingly human populated area. 

It’s easier to lose them this time, as there are less of them and he has a head start. He wishes they would wear their complete uniform as the green of a cloak would stand out amongst the buildings but he’s disappeared amongst the throng of people before they Military officers have a secure lock onto his location. 

At his slow pace and lack of nutrients it takes him until the end of his second day walking to reach the eleventh ward. The humans are far and few between here. To leave a ward you need money and not many can keep the money they have long enough to move out of such a ghoul infested wasteland. There is no upkeep like in the other wards. No Military Police roaming the streets, just CCG but then the CCG roam in teams of up to six which is a sight to see as they usually work in group of two sometimes three. Eren finds a good corner to camp in for the night. It’s in a dead end alley next to a heap of trash that smells something rotten but it masks his smell and that’s all that matters. He barely sleeps at all that night. He raises the back of his shirt and lets his Kagune out on occasion to warn off others from his new found territory, waking the moment another step foot into his alley.

Eren is interrupted by a ghoul much older than he is. “So young. So tasteful.” The voice reminds him of 24th but when Eren guides his glowing Kagune right through his stomach he’s reminded that it’s just another eleventh. Eren takes his time eating. He likes fingers and their crunch. He likes the flabs of muscle on the man's inner thighs. Eren takes care to move the rest of the corpse elsewhere before returning to his light and fitful slumber. 

It’s not the first time Eren’s committed cannibalism. After all he still is human in a way. He doubts he’ll ever really get used to the rancid taste of it. It’s worse than stomach acid and a few day old warm juice. He’d rather eat human food. He knows better though, if he wants to get stronger he needs to eat ghoul meat.

By the time the lamp posts illuminate Eren is already up and walking. He has his mask on and he’s got his hoodie hood up with his face turned down slightly he has no trouble stalking his prey. Three CCG investigators are making their way down the street ahead of him. He’s still fairly out towards the edge of the 11th ward. Any ghouls apart from the Aogiri tree are unlikely to head this way. Giving him ample time to escape. He ducks into an alley when the investigators stop and one goes off slightly for a piss. Lovely. Eren jumps up onto the building in front of him and follows the investigator.

The man is wearing a long trench coat and has his black dark hair greased back into a long ponytail. He’s facing a wall away from Eren when he lifts the back of his shirt and bag up to let his Kagune slip through and he pounces down and tackles the man down to the ground and gives the man enough time to scream before sinking his teeth into his throat. Eren adores the blood as it gurgles and squirts from the damaged artery. He laps the blood up before gouging away part of the man’s flesh with his teeth. “What the fuck? Christ.”

Chewing, he snaps and pulls the man’s hand off and stands up.

“You monster! How can you do such a thing!” The red haired investigator is already transforming his quinque. The Brunet is not too far behind. Eren brings a tentacle of his Kagune up and blocks the yellow razor Quinque before shooting his body up with new found strength. He rotates his body quickly around the Quinque before altering his route to dodge a newly formed hammer from the brunet and obliterates the cranium of the Red head with an unnecessarily strong kick. The blood is exactly where he needs it to be.

Eren lands on his feet and pulls his straps on his bag to stop it from jostling about, “You interrupted my meal.” His Kagune shoots out and knocks the hammer from his grasp and winds its way around the man’s body. It squeezes like a snake would a rabbit. It’s just the way of life. It takes a few minutes but Eren’s thankful.

  
  



End file.
